Lacrosse Headline

GAINESVILLE,
Fla. – The clock neared
10 seconds remaining and play continued at midfield, but Florida sophomore
Kitty Cullen raced toward the south end of the field and into the open arms of
Gators goalkeeper Mikey Meagher.

Or maybe she
floated. The moment seemed surreal to Cullen.

Was this
happening? Did the Gators really just beat No. 2-ranked Northwestern, which has
played for the last six national titles, in only their second season of
existence? Did Cullen and Meagher truly just have career performances in the
biggest game in the brief history of the Florida lacrosse program?

Yes, yes and
yes.

All those
thoughts and more raced around Cullen’s head as the final seconds ticked off in
Florida’s 13-11 victory over the Wildcats. For a few moments, Dizney Stadium seemed
more like Disney World for the duo as they jumped up and down, detached from
the rest of the world.

“I can’t
believe it,’’ Cullen said.

Soon, they
were mobbed by their teammates in front of a standing-room-only crowd that
broke out the Gator Chomp in the final seconds, creating a Kodak moment for
many in the crowd.

“I was just
screaming, ‘Oh my God, we just won.’ It was so exciting,’’ Cullen said after
her fourth six-goal game of the season. “I’m so happy for me and my team. I
wouldn’t want to share this with anyone else. This is what we’ve worked so hard
for day in and day out.’’

The Gators
took the field Thursday night confident they would be more of a thorn in Northwestern’s
side than they were a year ago, when the Wildcats lost to Maryland in the NCAA
title game, ending a streak of five consecutive national titles.

After all,
last season’s game – a 19-5 Northwestern victory – was over by halftime. The
Gators fell behind 15-0 before scoring a goal.

“We quite
honestly got embarrassed last year by this team,’’ Florida coach Amanda O’Leary
said. “They were just so much better than us.’’

Everyone knew
the Gators were improved, but no one knew for sure what to expect in Thursday’s
rematch. Would the tradition-rich Wildcats show up with an attitude? Would the
Gators show their youth? Could Northwestern really lose its first American
Lacrosse Conference game in seven years?

The Gators,
ranked No. 6, had won 12 in a row after losing to North Carolina in the season
opener. Meanwhile, the Wildcats entered a perfect 12-0, undefeated since that
loss to the Terrapins last May.

Thursday’s
game didn’t quite seem like the David vs. Goliath matchup from a year ago, but
it still had a big brother vs. little brother backdrop. The Gators had beaten
four ranked teams on their way to Thursday, but Northwestern had beaten 10.

Not only were
the Wildcats undefeated, they won easily, never trailing by more than three
goals the entire season and just once at halftime. Both of those times came in
a 12-10 comeback win over Duke two weeks ago.

So when the
Gators jumped to a 5-1 lead on Thursday behind three quick goals from Cullen,
and carried a 9-4 lead into halftime, you started to feel like something
special might be in the making.

“Our team
comes out of the locker room very fired up,’’ O’Leary said. “It doesn’t take a
whole lot to get fired up to play the No. 2-ranked team in the country.’’

You knew the
Wildcats weren’t going to go away quietly, and they proved it by coming out in
the second half and quickly scoring three goals in a little more than three
minutes. Suddenly, the Gators looked slower, less confident than they did in
the first half.

Meanwhile,
the Wildcats looked dangerous, like a cat on the prowl and with its prey in
sight. The game went back and forth until Meagher left the net to try to steal
a pass. She missed, and the ball ended up on the stick of Shannon Smith, who
scored to trim Florida’s lead to a goal with 6:37 remaining.

It felt like
the game was slipping away for the Gators.

“In practice,
the coaches encourage me to try and go out and get those free balls,’’ Meagher
said. “It’s going to happen. We just kind of regrouped. They told me it was OK,
and we just got back on it.’’

Crunch time
had officially arrived. O’Leary wasn’t overly concerned.

“I don’t
think we were pressing the panic button,’’ O’Leary said.

Instead of
the veteran Wildcats coming through in the clutch, it was the young Gators, led
by Cullen and Meagher. Cullen scored the game’s final goal a minute after
Smith’s score trimmed the lead to one, and then Meagher stole the show in the
final minutes.

Playing two
short the majority of the final three minutes because of a pair of yellow
cards, Meagher made a series of critical saves to preserve what will be
remembered as a signature victory for the Gators.

The win is
the kind that will catch the college lacrosse world’s attention. It’s the kind
of win that makes people wonder what this Gators team can do in just its second
season. It’s the kind of moment that changes a program’s identity and its
perception to the outside world.

“It kind of
shows us, ‘Hey, we can do it,’ ’’ said Cullen, who scored Florida’s final three
goals and now has a NCAA-best 67 on the season.

The Gators
grew up Thursday. The players and the fans and the program.

“To get the
fans and the support we have is just unreal, because they didn’t know a lot
about it,’’ Meagher said. “But now they are starting to understand it and love
the game.’’

As she
finished postgame interviews, O’Leary shared her view of this team.

She spent 14
years at Yale prior to taking over a Florida program that didn’t even have a
field or practice facility when she took the job. She then had to go find
players.

She obviously
found some good ones. They paid her back for believing in them on a warm
Thursday night.

“This is an
amazing team, and it is really a team,’’ O’Leary said. “This is the best I’ve
ever coached from top to bottom. I had some great players at Yale and some great
teams at Yale, but overall, this team from top to bottom is probably the most
talented group I have ever worked with.